Gutierrez: ‘Kirk should be ashamed’

Rep. Luis Gutierrez on Friday slammed the “shameful behavior” of fellow Illinois lawmaker Sen. Mark Kirk, who is seeking criminal records on the children along the U.S.-Mexico border and suggested that hundreds are in government custody in Illinois.

“Sen. Kirk should be ashamed of himself,” Gutierrez, a Democratic congressman, told the Chicago Sun-Times. “These are children, and he is trying to paint them as criminals and make Americans afraid of children. That is shameful behavior. Rather than exploiting children to score political points, how about the senator works with the President to solve a national problem.”

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Gutierrez, who has emerged as an outspoken leader on immigration reform, was responding to a Thursday press release from Kirk’s office. In the memo, the Republican senator said he learned 429 undocumented children from the U.S.-Mexico border are in custody with the Department of Health and Human Services in Illinois. Gutierrez said that the Department of Health and Human Services had not verified the 429 cases number.

Kirk attached a letter he wrote to the U.S. ambassadors in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to ask whether there had been any criminal background checks performed on the minors. A large number of the tens of thousands of undocumented children along the border came from Central American countries. “If any of these individuals has a criminal record in their home country,” Kirk said, “our government owes it to the American people to facilitate a sharing of records and reassure our nation that these individuals pose no threat.”

Gutierrez charged Kirk with trying to drum up fear that the children may be criminals and urged the senator to “open his heart” to the minors, many of whom appear to be fleeing difficult situations in their home countries.

“It is hypocrisy, it is immoral and it ought to stop,” the congressman said of Kirk’s behavior. “Among the children are little girls who are fleeing those who would abuse their bodies. Sen. Kirk, open your heart.”

Kirk’s office did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Kirk was one of 14 Republican senators of voted in favor of the Senate immigration bill passed last year.